Home Pantry Organisaton Tips: Before & After
Pantries come in all shapes and sizes. At Homefulness, we have a range of home pantry organisation tips and ideas to organise your pantry, shelves and more.
An organised and aesthetic home is a source of energy and inspiration and one place this is certainly important is in the pantry! Pantries come in all shapes and sizes and can include a combination of open shelves, cupboards, deep and shallow drawers as well as seemingly awkward to utilise spaces.
At Homefulness, we have a range of tried and tested home pantry organisation tips, ideas and tricks to help utilise every inch of the home pantry to ensure it lives up to its full potential whatever the size.
This client’s pantry was what many of us dream of having in our kitchens; a walk-in space with plenty of storage! However, it’s important to note that more space doesn’t necessarily translate to organised pantry space; it can be very easy, especially in a pantry with more storage where everything ‘technically’ fits, to overlook organising systems that enable the space to function effectively.
The home pantry organisation tips, ideas, tricks and product recommendations we share here can be utilised in large and small pantries alike and can help to make even the smallest of spaces a ‘dream pantry’! If you’re wondering how to organise cans in your pantry, how best to utilise low pantry shelves or how to ensure you can always find what you’re looking for, keep reading for our pantry organiser’s expert tips!
Pantry Before Professional Organisation:
Cluttered, Disorganised and Uninspiring
You will see in these before pictures that although there was space for everything inside this pantry, there was no clear system of kitchen organisation in place. Many products were hidden out of view behind others whilst similar items were stored in different locations within the pantry.
As a result, it was difficult for the family to know what items and quantities of food they actually had available. This was leading to overbuying as well as food waste, when items were expiring before the family had a chance to consume them.
Our aim for this pantry project was to overhaul the client’s space by implementing effective organising systems, thus ultimately creating a functional space for the whole family to easily access all of their food and keep track of their food inventory.
How to organise a pantry - our method
We started this organised pantry transformation in the same way that we start all of our organising projects; by removing everything! Every cupboard, drawer and shelf was cleared because the only way to create a fully effective home organising system is by having a clear idea of every item and category that needs to be included. Once everything was out on the counter, the team then reviewed, sorted, and categorised all items and discarded anything which had expired or gone bad.
At Homefulness we believe that ‘containment is key’, which is why we judge the effective use of products to be essential in creating an organised pantry that is easy to maintain. Therefore, prior to placing everything back into the pantry we figured out what organising products would aid effective organisation.
Organising pantry products can include bins, baskets, jars, drawer dividers, and spice racks; the list is endless! Just be sure to measure whatever products you choose to utilise in your space; there’s nothing worse than ordering and unpacking some gorgeous baskets only to find out that they don’t fit on your shelves!
Within a pantry, whether big or small, one of the most effective and aesthetically pleasing transformations comes from decanting. In this kitchen pantry we decided to decant everything from pasta to spices.
Here we used Le Parfait jars as they were the preference of our client. Not only do decanted jars of foods look more visually appealing; they are more practical too and effective at preventing foods from going stale.
There are also other items that can benefit from having their outer packing removed even if they can’t be decanted into jars. By removing items from their packaging you can save space (especially useful for those smaller pantries) and create a visually cleaner aesthetic when organising your pantry.
As you can see, in this pantry we used clear bins to group and store similar items e.g. crisps and granola bars, making them easier to grab on the go as well as allowing the family to quickly see when and where they need to restock items.
Products used to organise this pantry
Pantry After Professional Organisation: Systemised, Neat and Inspiring
After sorting, decluttering, decanting and categorising, we mapped out the pantry, designating a space for every item/category.
We used the upper shelves for large jars containing products that the family used on a less regular basis as well as backstock items.
We used the middle and bottom shelves for items that the family used on a regular basis.
We installed free-standing shelf organisers to make full use of the height of the shelves, where we placed cans and jars. On these shelves we also used a turntable to allow for easy access to bottles and jars as well as a spice rack to ensure all spice jars were visible!
We used the lower shelves closest to the ground to create a breakfast station where we grouped all breakfast items in wicker baskets that could be brought with the contents to the table at breakfast time. You’ll also see that we were able to free up some shelves for display purposes which really helped in creating an uncluttered feel within the pantry.
Finally we used our trusty label maker to label everything to help with the maintenance of the organisation in the future!
How can we help you organise your kitchen pantry?
With just a little hard work and some well placed organising products, we were able to get this pantry organised and functioning so much better for our client. Whether your pantry space is large like in this kitchen or you are working with something on the smaller side,we promise you will be happy you took the time to get organised! Be sure to check out our Pantry how-to guide for some more in-depth guidance on organising your pantry the Homefulness way, and remember, if you are looking for a professional pantry organiser, we can help!
